Ye it is an absolutely fantastic fish but why photograph it at arms length - it looks more like a 40lb plus fish ;D . If you look the fish is focused perfectly yet the depth of field is not quite enough leaving his body slightly out of focus plus also you can tell by the shadows cast, for some reason people seem to do it a lot in carp fishing. But worra great fish...

Yeah you are right, it's a great fish and the lucky captor is well within his rights to knock it on the head, i just feel abit sad for a bass of that size, i just wonder how old the fish is as i believe they are very slow growing fish.

Great fish and you can be certain its already contributed to the next generation of bass on many occasions. Think everyone here would be quite jealous of that capture. Lets not get into this business of people having to return every fish, its judgemental, its down to each individual angler to decide what they should do.